In the field of process automation, a field device is replaced during maintenance in case of faulty device or during up gradation of the plant. Generally for replacing and commissioning of field devices involves steps such as creating a copy of the configuration of the field device to be replaced, replacing the previous field device with new field device, manually creating a configuration file for the new field device in case the device versions or manufactures are different, and transferring of the copy of the configuration of the previous field device into the new or replaced field device.
The method for replacing and commissioning of the said field device with the same type, same revision and from the same manufacturer's field device is simple as old device configuration file is reusable in the same form However, if the new or replaced field device is of a different revision and/or from a different manufacturer, the configuring of the said new or replaced field device with the said copy of the configuration of the previous field device becomes very complex.
For simplicity in replacing and (commissioning of field devices from a different manufacturer and/or of a different revision, generic software components such as the “Generic Highway Addressable Remote Transducer (HART) DTM” are used in the device management component of Distributed Control System (DCS) in accordance with present state of art. However only limited accessibility to the functionalities of the field devices are provided by using generic components. For instance, in case of HART protocol based device, only the universal and common practice commands associated with the field devices are executed by using generic components.
There have been several approaches which have attempted to solve the problems mentioned above. However, there is a need for an improved system and method and a system for replacing and commissioning of field devices that allows seamless reusability of field device configuration files, interoperability.